The Endgame: America's Global Dominance is Nearing an End

Russia is looking to use its leadership of a bloc containing some of the world's most powerful nations to shift the international order away from Western dominance.

With new influential nations having recently joined BRICS and more looking to sign up to the emerging bloc, Russia's envoy to the United States told Newsweek that the group's ambitious push to overcome differing geopolitical outlooks and press forward toward a common agenda is already underway in spite of unique challenges Moscow faces.

"The year 2024 is a landmark year for the foreign policy of the Russian Federation," Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov told Newsweek. "Despite persistent attempts by a number of states to isolate our country or, at least, present such a picture that key foreign nations are fencing off from Moscow, de facto the situation is completely different."

"Advancement of the international community towards genuine multipolarity is gaining momentum," Antonov added. "And Russia is not a mere witness to these trends, but an active participant in this much-needed process."

Expanding Scope and Membership

BRICS was first established 15 years ago as BRIC among Brazil, Russia, India and China, with South Africa joining in 2010. Initially focused largely on economic affairs, BRICS has increasingly taken on a geopolitical element.

This year, as Russia took the helm of the bloc's rotating chairmanship under the banner of "Strengthening Multilateralism for Equitable Global Development and Security," BRICS accepted five new members—Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates—in line with last year's historic summit in Johannesburg. Argentina was also set to join but rescinded its accession after elections ushered in a major political shift at home.

As Russia prepares to host the next BRICS summit in Kazen this October, a growing list of countries—almost three dozen by Antonov's estimate—are also looking to become members or partners of the bloc. Now, according to the senior Russian diplomat, Moscow's goal "is to enhance and bolster BRICS' role and weight as a center of gravity for countries seeking to pursue an independent foreign policy course."

"For those who do not want to live under someone else's dictate, and aspire to be on friendly terms with the rest of the world, trading and interacting on equal footing," Antonov said.

"For those, to whom the fundamental principles of the group—sovereign equality, mutual and consensual consideration of interests, desire to shape a fair model of global markets, search for collective answers to the current challenges—are not an empty word."

Taking on the U.S. Dollar

This quest has taken on many forms, such as joint political, business and science endeavors. Perhaps most notably, however, BRICS has set out to reduce the influence of the U.S. dollar in world trade and establish new mechanisms of development assistance to countries seeking an alternative to Western-led institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Among the most important tools in this regard is the BRICS New Development Bank, headquartered in Shanghai and currently led by former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. Through this multilateral financial institution and efforts to emphasize trade among members using national currencies, BRICS has set out to address challenges, such as high transaction costs, that are associated with a U.S. dollar-dominated environment.

"Even politically affiliated experts acknowledge de facto monopolization of the current financial and economic infrastructure," Antonov said. "Such a situation does not in any way contribute to the global financial stability. And most importantly, it undermines its own credibility by creating new crises and hindering genuine decolonization of the world economy."

"A situation when a few countries feel entitled to dictate their will to others, threatening to cut off access to global economic processes, confiscate their assets, and ruin [the] well-being of ordinary citizens, is fundamentally wrong and inconsistent with prevailing tendencies," he added. "The overwhelming majority of states have realized the harmfulness of such approaches."

As such, Antonov asserted that Russia and its partners "remain fully committed to uniting our resources to design new financial instruments independent from political trends in Washington, Brussels or London, where authorities are ready to neglect national legislative provisions and postulates of international law in order to punish insufficiently loyal partners."

"It is unacceptable when the debt burden of developing countries—or rather, their ability to get out of the debt trap they were forced into over decades—is at the 'mercy' of the central banks of the United States and Europe," he said.

This article originally appeared on Newsweek